The Secret Life of Words (2006)

71% of critics liked it
(38 reviews)
86% of users liked it
(6,937 ratings)

Writer-director Isabel Coixet's (My Life Without Me) beautifully wrought chamber drama The Secret Life of Words opens on Hanna (Sarah Polley), a laconic, backward and introverted girl in her early '30s, quietly drowning in her own isolation. Partially deaf from working an untold number of hours in a… More Writer-director Isabel Coixet's (My Life Without Me) beautifully wrought chamber drama The Secret Life of Words opens on Hanna (Sarah Polley), a laconic, backward and introverted girl in her early '30s, quietly drowning in her own isolation. Partially deaf from working an untold number of hours in a loud factory, Hanna must wear a hearing aid. When her supervisors -- deeply concerned about the four years that have lapsed in Hanna's life without a break -- force her to go on holiday for a month, she hesitantly takes off for a coastal village in the north of Ireland. Once there, she decides to dine in a local restaurant, and overhears, by chance, a telephone conversation conducted by Victor (Eddie Marsan), regarding an accident on a nearby oil rig that he precipitated, which left a victim, Josef (Tim Robbins) in its wake. Hanna tells Victor that she is a nurse, and is instantly flown to the rig to treat the bedbound Josef -- temporarily blind from extensive cornea damage, and his body blanketed with severe burns. She also encounters the structure's motley and eccentric band of workers -- from ecologist Martin (Daniel Mays), who spends his time studying mutated mussels that collect on the ship's base and the waves that strike the side of the rig, to Josef, to chef Simon (Javier Camára), who prepares "gourmet" food no one else can stand, to Dimitri (Sverre Anker Ousdal), an elderly gentleman who is as much of a loner as Hanna. As Hanna begins to foresee a new place for herself among these individuals, a relationship gradually develops between Hanna and Josef, who holds his new friend rapt with lyrical, evocative, magisterial tales from his past -- unknowingly drawing Hanna, one step at a time, toward inner joy, self-expression, and revelation of her own sad and complex story. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 52 min.
Directed By: Isabel Coixet
Written By: Isabel Coixet
Genres: Art House & International, Drama

In Theaters: Dec 22, 2006 Limited
On DVD: May 8, 2007
Studio: Strand Releasing

Critic Reviews

Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter
The claustrophobic and artificial atmosphere of the setting is unfortunately matched by the equally artificial drama.
Lael Loewenstein, Los Angeles Times
There may be no young actress today better at embodying a blend of wounded innocence and stoic pride than Sarah Polley. In The Secret Life of Words, she has a part worthy of her gifts.
Andrew Sarris, New York Observer
Though I continue to have strong reservations about the stylistic abstractions in Ms. Coixet's narrative, the performances given by Ms. Polley, Mr. Robbins and Ms. Christie take me a long way in accepting and recommending the whole package.
Stanley Kauffmann, New Republic
Like Ceylan -- like many a fine director -- Coixet has made her film less as a drama than as the traversal of a state of mind, a mood.
Ella Taylor, Village Voice
In due course skeletons will march out of closets, but the movie yields up its secrets with slow reluctance.
V.A. Musetto, New York Post
Sarah Polley is such a wonderful actress, it's a shame she's not a bigger star.
Jean-François Vandeuren, Panorama
Un parcours vers une existence un peu plus normale que Coixet illustre avec tact et simplicité en tirant merveilleusement profit de l'immense talent de ses deux interprètes
Andrew L. Urban, Urban Cinefile
Heartache is guaranteed. And so it is in The Secret Life of Words, a strangely beautiful film about an ugly memory that Hanna (Sarah Polley) carries for the rest of her life
Walter Chaw, Film Freak Central
Can't resist the meaningful political backstory that will transform her characters into symbols--that is, into ventriloquist dummies rattling off humdrum rhetoric.
Josh Bell, Las Vegas Weekly
Can't hold the weight of its own pretensions.
Michelle Orange, Reeler
The film succeeds mainly as a story of the connective, regenerative tissue between words and silence on the level strength of its listeners.
Ted Murphy, Murphy's Movie Reviews
Coixet's screenplay may be a little slow in spots and someof the supporting characters are not very well drawn, but the spotlight is on the two leads, and both Robbins and Polley come through. There's some twee voiceover that mars the film's beginning and
Jules Brenner, Cinema Signals
Out in the north sea--no harbor for pain both physical and psychological--except what contact with the right human being may provide in the way of a cure.
Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly
What pleasure there is to be wrung from the exceptionally banal The Secret Life of Words lies in the harsh, unforgiving beauty (lyrically shot by Jean-Claude Larrieu) and wonderfully strange social life of the isolated rig.
, Boxoffice Magazine
Making it work onscreen requires a Herculean effort from the actors, a task to which Polley and Robbins -- as well as their supporting cast -- are more than adequately suited.
Eric Lurio, Greenwich Village Gazette
This thing is very, very deep. So deep in fact that getting the bends is a distinct possibility.

Read all 16 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

jay n

A worthwhile film but that doesn't mean that it's an enjoyable movie viewing experience.
Leigh R

Not being much of a fan of Polley, this movie breaks all the rules. Wonderful story and fabulous acting (especially Polley). The way it slowly tells the stories of both Hanna and Josef and their journey together just mixes so well. FABULOUS!
Jens S

This very calm, quiet drama tells the story of a young laconic woman working at a factory without having much of a life, being forced to take some time off for vacation where she happens to overhear an oil platform being in need of a nurse. Instead of relaxing she takes care of a burn… More
This very calm, quiet drama tells the story of a young laconic woman working at a factory without having much of a life, being forced to take some time off for vacation where she happens to overhear an oil platform being in need of a nurse. Instead of relaxing she takes care of a burn victim (Tim Robbins) who is is slowly recovering from an accident there. As she is slowly making contact with her flirty patient and the minimum crew there, she carefully seems to come out from her shell. Sarah Polley is really convincing as tortured soul with a dark secret, that is going to get revealed in the end, in a pretty gloomy and almost painful story to listen to. The fact that the movie doesn't end in despair right there but takes the tale a little further, where hope is still an option, makes it really rewarding in the end. Fine acting, an interesting and moving story, an all around convincing romance / drama.
Curtis L

Tim Robbins had great dialog in this film (until the ending). A burn victim on an oil rig in the ocean, who falls in love with his war-refugee nurse Sarah Polley who shows him her cut up boobs. Turned out to be pretty great.
Craig S

Directed by: Isabel Coixet. Starring: Sarah Polley, Tim Robbins. I had heard prier to watching this film that the audience is split down the middle, some who say is intellectual, complex and very powerful and… More
Directed by: Isabel Coixet. Starring: Sarah Polley, Tim Robbins. I had heard prier to watching this film that the audience is split down the middle, some who say is intellectual, complex and very powerful and others say its hollow.....I don't quite agree with either of those, I'm somewhere in the middle. The story starts with an oil rig accident in the middle of the sea, a man is badly burnt and requires a new nurse. Then we are introduced to Hannah, a very quiet, strange, solitary woman who works in a factory, she is never late and never has had a holiday in years, when the boss gives her the offer to take one, she refuses, instead she overhears about the nurse position in a bar and she takes it. Hannah tends to this man, Josef and he slowly breaks her silence. I personally felt that director/writer Isabel Coixet ruined the chance to make the film more than what it is, maybe I just found it hard to latch onto her narrative. I can't deny the movie shared a few shocking and unexpected powerful and moving moments, but I had a problem adapting to these characters for the first half of the film and with the pace moving slowly, I could never grasp on enough to really feel for the later scenes. The acting is top notch, Tim Robbins proves to be strong and quite humorous with the dialogue he is given and Sarah Polley deserves to be more recognised, she delivers a subtle and complex performance, when the moment is needed for her character, she delivers brilliantly. Many will like this film, I'm not saying I hate it, but I never grasped onto the film in the first half due to dull characters and a slow pace and when it did pick up in the second half and the characters pack a punch, it just wasn't enough for me to love. Disappointed.
Walter M

[font=Century Gothic]In "The Secret Life of Words", Hanna(Sarah Polley) is a hearing impaired immigrant living in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She has worked at a factory for four years without taking a vacation or a sick day. Even though Hanna has amassed a superb work… More
[font=Century Gothic]In "The Secret Life of Words", Hanna(Sarah Polley) is a hearing impaired immigrant living in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She has worked at a factory for four years without taking a vacation or a sick day. Even though Hanna has amassed a superb work record, she has also been receiving a fair amount of complaints from her co-workers. So, her boss tells her to take four weeks off and go somewhere. That she does but only so far as an off-season resort town, where she can continue living her sterile life. But an accident at a nearby oil rig has killed one man and left another, Josef(Tim Robbins), too severely injured to move. When a company man is looking for a nurse to tend to him, Hanna volunteers for the job.[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]"The Secret Life of Words" is an intelligent, off-beat(I still don't get that narration), and evocative movie about survival. And no matter how much we may wish it, we are never truly alone.(Everybody has their own reason for working on the isolated oil rig.) Sarah Polley and Tim Robbins give very good performances.[/font]
Daisy M

Sometimes people go through great amounts of pain and unbearable suffering, it takes a lot of time for them to be able to heal and go on with their lives. This movie helps us to understand that process and connect with other people's pain. It does it in a very slow pace, but… More
Sometimes people go through great amounts of pain and unbearable suffering, it takes a lot of time for them to be able to heal and go on with their lives. This movie helps us to understand that process and connect with other people's pain. It does it in a very slow pace, but that's the greatness and beauty of this movie. It gives us time to understand what these people have been through and shows how important it is that we do not forget. This movie is not for people who are not sensitive to think about what happened in Yuguslavia' some years ago and what the human cruelness can reach in war times.It also shows that there is a place in a world for those that have suffered, hurt, lonely, shy. And I am grateful for this movie, it shows that there is so much more in life than words, and that we all carry a rich universe in us to be explored if we love and are loved no matter who we are and what life has put us through. Simply beautiful and a must to see.
Bill C

I loved this movie, but I can see how its not or everyone. The exceptionally subdued action serves two purposes. It is required to focus the audience on the very understated revelation of the action and it mirrors the hidden secrets that both Polley's and Robbin's characters… More
I loved this movie, but I can see how its not or everyone. The exceptionally subdued action serves two purposes. It is required to focus the audience on the very understated revelation of the action and it mirrors the hidden secrets that both Polley's and Robbin's characters are hiding. The opening ten minutes without dialogue follow Polley (without dialog through her routing working in a loud twine factory and eating the same meal (chicken, apple and rice) every day without any personnel interaction. The sound goes silent for a minute and another employee taps her shoulder and she turns up her hearing aid revealing her near complete hearing loss. Her attention is piqued when she overhears a man trying to find out how to get a nurse to live on an oil rig for two weeks that is shutdown after a fatal fire that leave Robbins gravely burned not stable enough for transport. She surprisingly explains that she is a nurse. I really enjoyed picking up on the little tidbits of information and the study of what is not said in furtherance of the action. The lack of subtly after the climax was a little let down, but over all one of the most enthralling natural character studies I've seen in a long time.